This invention relates to a broadcast radio tuner and, more specifically, to a remote tuner control system with artificial voice menu and response features.
In the field of broadcast radio communications, there are many occasions when a person outside of the reception area of a given broadcast radio station has reason to monitor the station's signal. As one example, it is common for an individual or corporate owner of a radio station to be located in a city some distance from the station. The owner may desire to listen to the performance of the owned station from time to time in order to determine whether the station is adhering to operational policies established by the owner. Likewise, the absentee owner of a competing station in the same market may desire to monitor the competition in order to refine operation and marketing strategies.
Other persons may also wish to monitor the performance of a given station. Advertisers frequently contract with stations or networks of stations for advertising to be run at specific times during the day. Advertising agencies therefore monitor radio station performance to determine whether or not the station has in fact fulfilled its contractural obligation. Regulatory agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission may also wish to monitor the performance of radio stations in order to enforce statutory and regulatory obligations. In the case of stations which broadcast copyrighted entertainment material under licence, licensing organizations such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) may wish to monitor stations in order to determine copyright royalty fees. In the case of a station which is known in the broadcast industry to have an innovative and successful format, program directors of stations in other markets may wish to monitor the innovative format in order to imitate it in their own markets.
Heretofore, those who desired to monitor a station in a remote location have been limited to means which involve either a high capital outlay or a delayed retransmission. The Federal Communications Commision, for instance, often relies on oversized antennas in combination with sensitive tuners and powerful amplifiers to monitor stations from points far beyond their normal service areas. Absentee owners may purchase dedicated phone lines at high cost between the station transmitter and the ownership offices. Others may simply call the station to be monitored and ask for a temporary telephone connection or may hire persons within the station's service area to tape broadcasts for later review.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,090 discloses a two-way cable television distribution system. The viewer selects a program to be viewed and the selection is transmitted upstream as a series of tones on two dedicated wires. At the distribution point, the tones are decoded and the resulting selection drives an electromagnetic switching system. The switching system makes contact with a video program source corresponding to the selection transmitted and the program is returned downstream to the user's video receiver via a second high-bandwidth pair of wires.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,498 discloses a hand-held radio transceiver microphone and control unit. The hand-held unit includes a single-pole double-throw switch which drives an up/down counter to increment or decrement the channel selected, which in turn is displayed on a segment display of the transceiver unit. The channel selection is decoded by a decoder and digital switch and provided by dedicated line to the transceiver section. The same dedicated line is also used to transmit the status of a transmit/receive switch, squelch control and volume control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851 discloses a broadcast program monitoring and recording system. This device may be coupled to a home video receiver for ratings purposes or may be coupled to a dedicated receiver for the purposes of monitoring the performance of a particular television broadcasting facility. The system includes a detector for decoding identification codes transmitted as a part of the broadcast signal, as well as a local computer and clock for recording the time at which each program appears on the video receiver. The system may be interrogated intermittently by a remote computer through a telephone line. Thus, a remote office is able to access the viewing record of the program schedule of a particular station.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,304 discloses a radiotelephone with autodial capabilities. The system includes a handset with push-button pads and telephone number display controlled by a microcomputer. The handset is linked by cable to a cradle which includes a variety of control switches as well as a channel and status display driven by a second microcomputer. The microcomputer controls the transmission and reception of audio information through a transceiver. The system may include temporary memory for autodial of a number which has previously rung busy, as well as permanent memory for frequently dialed numbers.
In addition to the patents cited above, the following U.S. Pat. Nos. are also of interest: 3,699,443; 3,757,225; 3,774,114; 3,911,204; 4,019,142; and 4,197,497.
The prior art reveals several deficiencies addressed by the present invention. Each system requires some form of customized program or channel selection hardware in the hands of the user. The system designed to communicate with human users has some form of visual feedback, either in the form of a numeric channel selection display, or a television display of the program currently offered on the channel selected. While program image display is often sufficient to determine that the television channel selected is indeed returned to the user, radio stations often duplicate one another's program material to the extent that it is difficult upon listening to determine immediately which station has been selected. Moreover, the systems which offer video monitoring must necessarily make use of dedicated lines providing bandwidth far in excess of that necessary for radio monitoring.